The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez: what becomes of Geneviève Grad, the famous actress of the saga?

A cult role that marked the career of Geneviève Grad. In 1964, the actress embodied the character of Nicole Cruchot, the daughter of Louis de Funès in Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez directed by Jean Girault. A comedian and father of fiction for the young Parisian, with whom she had already shared the screen in the past.

The year of her 16th birthday, Geneviève Grad “was the tender Isabelle with the beautiful eyes in Le Capitaine Fracasse by Pierre Gaspard-Huit, in 1960”, indicates the author Bertrand Dicale in his book Louis de Funès from A to Z, published published by Gründ. While the famous actor played the role of Scapin in the film adaptation of Théophile Gautier’s novel. It is with this role of beautiful ingenue that the actress convinced the actor to play the daughter of the chief sergeant Cruchot.

At that time, Geneviève Grad burst onto the screen in the first part of the Tropezian saga. “Loving girl, but a little airheaded and vaguely rebellious”, according to journalist Bertrand Dicale in his book, the actress is best known for interpreting the hit of the film Douliou, Douliou, Saint-Tropez. The actress and singer (who played the wife of Patrice Laffont) again gives the reply to Louis de Funès in The Gendarme in New York (1965) and The Gendarme gets married (1968). After three parts, she prefers to put her acting career on hold.

Meanwhile, Geneviève Grad made a few appearances at the cinema in action films (OSS 117 takes a vacation), in the erotic world (Flash Love, Sexual Liberties, etc.) and in television soap operas. However, his desire to retire from film sets led him to take refuge in the Gers. “After Le gendarme marie, I realized that I had not taken a vacation for twelve years”, she confided to Télé 7 Jours in 1993, relayed by Here. Ten years before her secrets, she played a lawyer in her last film It’s not going to be sad.

On the sentimental side, Geneviève Grad crossed paths with Igor Bogdanoff, a native of the village of Saint-Lary in the Gers region. A real love at first sight settled between the scientist and the artist. “I had a very beautiful and great passion with Igor Bogdanoff”, revealed the actress in an interview with Maud Guilaumin, author of the book The Mystery Bogdanoff, released in 2019, according to Gala. From their union, they welcome their son Dimitri born in 1976. Shortly after, the couple put an end to their relationship and the star questioned the paternity of her ex-spouse. “Igor now refuses to consider [Dimitri] as his offspring,” she told the writer according to our colleagues.

Subsequently, Geneviève Grad changed paths by moving towards other fields: as a production assistant for Temps X, the flagship program of the Bogdanoff brothers on TF1. Then, in the world of events and antiques before starting a new life with the architect Jean Guillaume in 1993. If the actress has since been discreet in the media, she celebrated her 78th birthday on July 5th.